{"id":28580,"date":"2016-10-18T01:17:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T23:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/randonnee-kepler-track\/"},"modified":"2020-07-06T10:11:20","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T08:11:20","slug":"hike-kepler-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/en\/hike-kepler-track\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kepler Track, to the summits"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Back from Queenstown<\/strong><\/a>, I spend the weekend at my dairy farm<\/strong><\/a>, enjoying my last moments with the cows. Barbecue evening (my first Kiwi barbecue) to celebrate my departure. Chloe, the seven month old girl is about to start walking on her legs. He has a few hours left before my departure to succeed! Monday September 26, Julie brings me, accompanied by the three children, to Te Anau in the house of her parents, Jill and Alan. I will spend the night there before going on a multi-day hike on the Kepler Track. We go shopping for hiking equipment (stove, gas bottle, pan, cutlery and rental of a ski pole in case I meet snowy parts on the way). I also raid the only supermarket in the village to get food for the four days. My clothes are ready. It remains to put everything in the bag. A good two hours will be necessary to package it all. Corned beef and canned beans will have to stay at home because they are too heavy.<\/p>

So here I am at the end of the morning, Tuesday September 27 for a hike through Fiordland. Jill, Julie\u2019s mom, accompanied by Isla, Carter and Chloe, drops me off at the start of the trail, just outside the village at the end of Te Anau Lake. I greet the children and off I go, crumbling a little under the weight of the bag. The Kepler Track is one of the Great Walks. These are long hikes of several days considered famous in the country. There are nine of them in the various national parks of the archipelago. The Kepler Track is the most accessible hike of all since it starts a few minutes from the village of Te Anau.<\/p>

The first part of the hike is a leisurely stroll along the shores of Lake Te Anau through a forest of New Zealand beech trees. The ground is covered with moss and ferns. It looks more like a tropical forest than my French beech forests. It is a little cloudy and damn humid. A good hour later I arrived at Brod Bay, an area by the lake where it is allowed to camp. Toilets, sinks and barbecues are available. I have lunch on the beach enjoying the scenery. The lake sparkles and rays of the sun appear among the clouds warming the atmosphere. Not many people in the area, it is really calm. Little birds come see me to try to grab a few crumbs from my meal.<\/p>

I start on the second stage of the day, a climb of about 800 meters above the forest to reach the mountain meadows where the first hut of the hike is located. It is hot and I found the climb painful. Three hours of ascent through the forest without meeting many people. I appreciate the absolute calm and the melody of the birds which accompanies my progress. My mind wanders to the rhythm of my steps. The landscape is slowly changing. From a forest filled with Silver Beech, I pass to a forest filled with Mountain Beech covered with impressive green moss, to finally cross during the last thirty minutes of the climb, a forest of trees covered with lichens. It is very impressive.<\/p>

After three hours of climbing, I finally reach the top. The forest gives way to meadows of yellow herbs and the landscape becomes more alpine. I see Te Anau in the background and the snow-capped peaks of Mount Luxmore which I will follow tomorrow. Forty minutes to follow the ridge and appreciate the landscape and the hut appears in a bend, sheltered in a small hollow. Not having met many people, I expect little company. But it is the opposite. About thirty people are already present and a dozen will appear after me. While the official season (October to April) has not even started yet, the 54-bed hut is already almost completely full! Groups of Chinese, English speakers, French …<\/p>

I sit in the quietest corner I can find (which is all relative in dormitories) and go down for a walk around the hut to have my meal. A resident guard tells us what not to do in the house and about the condition of the trail at the peaks. Some areas are still covered with snow and require vigilance. Listening to the discussions, I learn that half of the people will continue the trail and the other half will return to Te Anau. Good news because tonight is not my idea of \u200b\u200ba quiet mountain hike.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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